1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary cutter and, more particularly, to an improved rotary cutter in which sawdust and wood chips can be effectively removed from the cutter with a single extractor.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a wood planer (400) typically includes at least one rotary cutter (30) rotatably arranged therein for cutting a piece of wood, and a collecting system (40) disposed over the rotary cutter (30) for collecting the sawdust and wood chips from the cut wood.
The collecting system (40) has a plurality of extractor hoods (41), each communicating with a collector (not shown) through a hose as shown in phantom line in FIG. 3. An inlet (42) is situated substantially over the longitudinal midpoint of the rotary cutter (30) and communicates with the extractor hoods (41).
When the rotary cutter (30) is rotated, the sawdust and wood chips cut from the work piece move along a plurality of flutes (31) defined in the periphery of the rotary cutter (30), and are removed from the cutter (30) via the inlet (42).
In the conventional rotary cutter, the flutes (31) are configured as helical grooves (32) that extend from a first end to a second end of the cutter (30).As the rotary cutter (30) has a length beyond the coverage of the single inlet (42), sawdust and wood chips moving from the cutter (30) towards the second end will never be sucked away but will instead be ejected from the cutter (30) in the direction as denoted by the arrow A in FIG. 4.
The ejected sawdust and wood chips will then fly about contaminating the local atmosphere, eventually falling and accumulating within the wood planer (400), causing inconvenience to the operator.
One of the resolutions to the problem is to provide multiple extractor inlets (42) one by one over the rotary cutter (30). However, this arrangement of multiple extractor inlets (42) is complicated and makes the cutting process of the wood planer (400) costly.
Therefore, it is an objective of the invention to provide an improved rotary cutter to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.